'GOSICK': Gothic Lolita Solves Murder Mysteries

Sometimes, when you're solving a mystery, you need to take your time and pore over all the clues with excruciating detail. Other times -- or if you're prodigy like Victorique -- all you need is a cursory summary of the sequence of events, an idea of the characters involved, and a fake pipe to drag on, and the case practically solves itself. In the anime series GOSICK, little Victorique is a whiz at detective work, which seems like the only thing capable of relieving her boredom. Fortunately, a new transfer student to her school looks to liven things up. GOSICK is a full-length television series now available to anime fans in Australia, courtesy of Madman Entertainment.

St. Marguerite's Academy is a quaint little school located in Sauville, itself nestled snugly in the heart of 1920s Europe. But for the oddball mystery, one might fancy this school tolerably unusual. To that end, rumors and myths, urban legends and theories of medieval occult, all roam the halls of this academy. And even if most students comment on them jokingly, the village where this school is located nevertheless suffers from its fair share of murder mysteries and crimes of an otherwise bizarre or unsolvable nature.

Victorique, by the way, is a genius little sleuth who bides her time in the academy's library tower. She's working her way toward reading every single book in the building, attempting to relieve her boredom with everything else. As GOSICK continues, Victorique becomes more engaged when she meets Kazuya Kujo, a Japanese exchange student and son of an Imperial soldier.

Truth be told, Kazuya stumbles across the girl in the library by accident while researching the school's peculiar obsession with horror and urban mythology (he's been branded the Dark Reaper by his peers due to his dark hair and eyes).

But when the boy actually sees Victorique in action, solving problems that leave local detectives scratching their heads, Kazuya joins the girl in an effort to crack all sorts of curious crimes around town.

GOSICK is a twenty-four episode anime series that originally aired early last year. Madman Entertainment is releasing the Japanese animation in two DVD sets, subtitled, the first of which retails this week (AUD $59.95), containing the first twelve episodes. The second DVD set release is scheduled for August 2012. In GOSICK, Kazuya and Victorique must tackle a good deal of obvious dilemmas, but their adventures into the uncanny eventually unearth problems that are darker and more vital to local mythology than first imagined.

Kazuya is kind of a whiny kid when juxtaposed with the elegance of his partner, but his good nature does well to alleviate her generally stoic appearance. Victorique, a loli with attitude, knows that there will always be cases that the bumbling detectives will never solve -- so it's up to her to set things straight. A murder here, remnants of war there; something's always going on, for better or for worse, usually for worse. But as viewers of GOSICK will find, Victorique's family ties to this little nook of early-century Europe tip-toe into this tale of Holmes-like deduction with gradual but meaningful affirmation.

Madman Entertainment announced its license of GOSICK late last summer [past A.I. news: "Madman Anime Licensing News" (08/2011)]. Bandai Entertainment (U.S.) announced their plans to distribute the series around this time as well. Unfortunately for North American otaku, Bandai Ent. withdrew from the direct-licensing business earlier this year. GOSICK is a production of Studio BONES (No. 6, FMA: Brotherhood, Eureka Seven: Astral Ocean).

Related 'GOSICK' Anime News:
"Bandai Ent. Downsizing" at AnimeNewsNetwork.com (01/2012)